Torrin gulped down air as he returned to himself. He sputtered. The layer of water that had covered him his whole way here now seemed to be almost a cocoon around him.
'Take my blessing and go, child. You have many thingsss to take care of, it would ssseem.' the sea serpent hissed in his mind.
He tried to respond, but the cloying water prevented him from being able to say anything--he couldn't even catch a breath. Darkness started to creep into the corners of his vision as his panic rose. His mind was still reeling from the visions and he felt strange in his own skin. The sea serpent sighed as the last remnants of her soul took in the struggling boy.
Surprisingly, the sigh breaching his mind helped Torrin focus just enough to begin absorbing the water mana around him. It was nowhere near enough, as he still struggled to get a breath of air. His mana core felt strained as it became too full too quickly. The ball of Saen within his mana core finally responded to his struggles and began to spin, helping to absorb the ambient mana just as it had with the earth mana from the tortoise.
Torrin was finally able to take in a breath of air. He lay on the ground, breathing and trying to feel normal once more. While he lay there, he tried to understand what the serpent was saying in his mind. The words the serpent spoke to him were as ethereal as mist over a lake and just as hard to grasp onto. He was unsure how long he lay on the ground, but a sentence finally broke through his muddled mind.
'Your sssecond core'sss energy isss almossst like that of my father...' The words sharpened his focus slightly.
Torrin tried to respond, but only a cough emerged from his open mouth. After a few more attempts, he was able to get out, "It is?" Torrin could barely get the words out and they fell short of everything he wanted to ask.
He had so many questions bouncing around his skull, such as where the ascension door led to, for example. The golden portal in the vision had been near enough to the one from Nim's ascension to make him think they were the same.
'Yesss... I would have loved to ssspeak with you further, but I am fading quickly. Good luck, Torrin. Atleassst two worldsss depend on you.'
"Wait!" Torrin shouted, desperation allow him to stand to his feet, "Where did the doorway take you?!"
'Now why would I ruin the sssurprissse?' The serpent's response bled amusement.
"Fine! What did you mean by my second core? How do you know about Virtus wanting to take over the two worlds? How do you even know my name?!" The flood of questions wouldn't stop.
A hissing laugh was the only response, quickly fading from his mind like smoke on the wind. Torrin knew the beast was gone, now. Once again, he found himself alone. It didn't feel great, but what grated on him the most was the fact that he also had far more questions than answers. He wanted to feel upset, but couldn't find the strength. His mind was just as weary as his body as he sagged to the floor.
Torrin awoke. He didn't remember falling unconscious, but was pleasantly surprised to find that his body felt better than ever. A nagging sense of hunger tugged at him, so he sat up and took out some food. As he ate, his eyes wandered the cavern, taking in the fading light of the pool and the giant, twisting, stone body of the sea serpent. He thought about the words the serpent had said.
"So that crystal inside my mana core is what? A Saen core?" He mused aloud, taking another bite of food. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. But he was still unsure how exactly the thing worked. It seemed to react to stimulus; the mana regeneration pill came to mind, as well as the desperation he felt when he couldn't breathe from the overload of water mana nearly drowning him. However, he found it hard to actually control the Saen like he did his mana.
He could pull Saen from the core to enhance his body, which he did quite often. But once the energy left his body, it was like he had no real control over it any longer. After a long time spent eating and thinking about his second core, he decided only testing would be able to give him anymore answers.
After finishing what must have been enough food to feed the entire group of elves, he still felt hungry, 'Oh no...' he thought. An uneasy feeling crept up on him.
If the sea serpent's blessing also included its unending hunger, he wanted the beast to take it back. There was no way that he would be able to stay sane with such a nagging sense of hunger all the time. Just thinking about it scared Torrin, as he remembered how the serpent's memory was tinged with thoughts of hunger constantly.
To distract himself, he entered into a meditative state to check on his cores. He could still feel water mana being absorbed by his Saen core, so he wanted to see what was going on. As his cores came into view in his mind's eye, he was surprised at the growth of the thing. His Saen core was nearly doubled in size. It took up almost half the space of his mana core now and didn't seem to be slowing down any time soon.
Curious at the sight and just a bit worried, Torrin activated the condense rune on his mana core to see if there would be any reaction. The power from the rune and the energy within his mana core pushed on the spinning crystal--his Saen core, he reminded himself-- and compressed the bloated core back down to the size of a marble. As if in protest, the Saen core seemed to redouble its efforts to absorb the rich, ambient water mana.
Torrin found the experience both relieving and a little painful. He had become slightly worried that his Saen core might grow indefinitely and eventually break his mana core. A shiver ran down his spine and he turned his thoughts back to what he needed to do next.
He didn't want to spend too much time in the water temple, but he also didn't want to waste any of the water mana here. Torrin left his meditative state as the Saen core continued greedily gulping down water mana. He took the time-keeping amulet from his pocket and saw that much more time had passed than he had felt. 11 months had passed in total since entering the pocket dimension.
'Around four months spent in this temple already...' Torrin clicked his tongue at the thought. He had no idea if the elves would be at the wind temple, but that was definitely his next destination. Though he felt hungry, the more his core drank, the less the feeling hovered over him. He also felt an innate connection to the water element now more than ever. Overall, Torrin decided the trade-off was worth it.
'Were these temples the real reason Grams sent me to the elves? Did she know what they contained? Or was it just to convince the elves to help fight Virtus?' Torrin wondered. Those thoughts brought his mind to the sea serpent's words again.
'How had the beast known my name or the situation with Virtus? Did it read my mind? Was it informed by the being of energy--the one it called father?' Torrin's mind was turbulent with unanswered questions. He tried his best to let the growing feeling of annoyance wash away so he could focus.
'And what had she meant by saying that Saen was almost like her father's energy?' This was the question that Torrin wished he had gotten an answer to the most. When Torrin saw the recording of Nim's ascension, he thought the portal Nim entered was made of Saen. The theory felt even stronger when he first saw the being of energy, thinking it too was made of pure Saen somehow. Its subsequent actions in enhancing the beasts made the theory seem even more plausible.
'But the serpent said it was almost like her father's energy... So it isn't the same.' His head hurt trying to figure everything out on his own. He wished that Grams were here so he could bug her about this. The corner of his lips tugged up, 'On second thought, she'd probably avoid giving me any straight answers.'
Torrin hadn't liked the serpent's answer to what lay on the other side of the ascension portal. The more he interacted with powerful people or beings, the more similarities he found to Grams. He could only guess that once someone reached the height of power, messing with others was the only thing that entertained them anymore.
A few days were spent absorbing the ambient water mana from the sea serpent's cavern. As his Saen core spun, he passed the time studying Grams' journal, practicing his sword art, and testing his water control. On the fifth day, the chamber was nearly barren of water mana. Torrin tried condensing his Saen core once more, but it barely moved. As he'd done with the tortoise, he thanked the serpent and began his trip out of the water temple.
As he walked down the tunnel towards the first cavern, he sipped on water he'd taken from the pool surrounding the serpent's altar. It was not only the most wonderful drink he'd ever tasted, but it also drove away any sense of exhaustion he felt. It was simply magical.
Torrin made it to the cavern and dove into the pool of water he'd entered from, swiftly making his way back to the beach. The water seemed to heed his call without much effort and the trip was twice as quick. The moon was out when Torrin surfaced, but he had no intention of stopping now. He made his way to the slope he'd created from the top of the cliff and scaled it quickly. With a look back to the beach, he aligned his path with the direction the arrow pointed and sped forward.
A week passed as he traversed the grassy plain once more. Days of running and nights spent studying caused the time to pass quickly. A few mana beasts decided to test their luck on him and were swiftly dealt with.
It wouldn't be long now until he reached the craggy mountains he had noticed a few days ago. As he came within a few miles of the mountain range, he paused to scope out the mountain. He thought he could see a structure atop one of them. He couldn't be sure, though, as his view was obscured by clouds that swirled around the mountain peaks.
Even when he enhanced his vision, he was unable to get a clear view of the structure. Without further consideration, he took a sip of magic water and continued his journey towards what he assumed was the wind temple.
He stopped at the foot of the mountain. It was the middle of the night and though the trip to the top of the mountain wouldn't be too arduous, he still wanted to rest a bit before taking it on. It had been three days since he'd last slept and he wanted to be fresh for when he entered the wind temple. He also might be able to see the elves once again, which brought an unexpected smile to his face.
Using a few stones from the mountain, Torrin made a makeshift structure to rest in. It was a simple thing made of four walls, a roof, and a window that faced the plain he'd come from. Making anything nicer would take time that he didn't feel like wasting at the moment. Sleep came easy, brought on by the weariness caused from days of constant traveling, studying, and training.
A crashing sound woke Torrin from his restful sleep. Confusion knit his brows as another crashing sound was heard. He also felt his terrible stone structure shake from an impact at the same moment. The sleepiness he felt evaporated from his mind as he realized something had to be hitting his structure.
'A beast? Or maybe a land slide of some sort?' Torrin wondered as he lowered the wall opposite the impact. He walked through the opening, turning his eyes to look up the mountain. A smile formed as he saw a group of about twenty-five elves standing on the side of the mountain, looking down at him. His lips pulled down as he watched two elves near the front of the group working together to pull stray earth into a large boulder. A third elf kicked the boulder down the mountain towards him.
Torrin enhanced his vision and was unsurprised to see the elf that kicked the boulder was Yawnel. He huffed a sigh and walked from around his structure to greet the elves. Yawnel beat him to the punch.
"Look, everybody, it actually is the dirty human!" Yawnel shouted, followed by a chorus of laughter from the group that surrounded him. Torrin's brow rose slightly as he noticed that Yawnel's group of idiots was no longer limited to the nine he led when Torrin last saw him. The size of his sycophantic army had grown by more than double.
'What's going on here? Why would anyone willingly choose to join him?' Torrin wondered as he made his way toward the group. They were about half a mile up the mountain. Boulders continued to be rolled his way as he went, some of the other elves even threw a few of their own spells at him. Torrin was more annoyed than anything as he deflected or dodged the incoming attacks.
"Can you guys stop already? What's the point of all of this?" Torrin pleaded, with exasperation drenching his words. To his surprise, they did.
"You know, she said you might still be alive, but none of us bought that. Turns out, she was right!" Yawnel seemed to be in peak form today as he spouted more nonsense.
"Dawn?"
"Yes, Dawn, you moron. She told us to wait here just in case you showed up. I'm so happy I listened to her, now. We can kill you before she even gets back."
"Kill me?" Torrin mused aloud.
"Yes, kill you! You're a blight that needs to be removed. She said to just keep you busy, but I think killing you is the right call. Isn't that right, guys?" Yawnel preened as his group all murmured their agreements.
'Dawn said to keep me busy? They want to kill me? What is this idiot going on about?' Torrin didn't fully understand the situation and his face must have shown it.
"Don't you get it, human? No one likes you. No one!" Yawnel answered Torrin's unspoken question.
Torrin shrugged, "Okay? What does that have to do with anything? Where is everyone else at?"
"I'm tired of talking to this trash. You're not even worth another breath! Everyone! Attack!" Yawnel shouted, sending a wave of wind sailing towards Torrin. With a sigh, Torrin sent Saen rushing throughout his body and mana to his mind, preparing himself for the incoming attacks.
'Why can't this idiot just leave me alone?' Torrin wondered sourly.